With just 22 days to go before Gilas Pilipinas takes on its biggest challenge so far in the 2019 FIBA World Cup Qualifiers, all 13 players from the pool were in attendance for the team’s fourth practice for it.
Gabe Norwood, Jayson Castro, Kiefer Ravena, Matthew Wright, Allein Maliksi, Troy Rosario, Carl Cruz, Kevin Alas, Mac Belo, Jio Jalalon, and Roger Pogoy participated for the night’s session, while June Mar Fajardo and Japeth Aguilar sat on the sidelines. Helping the team were 16 of the 23 for 2023 cadets and six foreign players — including Ola Adeogun and Eugene Toba of San Beda, and Chibueze Ikeh of Ateneo.
Unlike Gilas however, the Boomers — the 10th-ranked team in the world — have been practicing for this window longer than Gilas.
“We’ve been watching them since Beirut. We have all of their game film. We scouted them live. We know quite a bit,” shared Reyes, as Australia dominated the 2017 FIBA Asia Cup en route to gold. “And what we know about them is they’re very strong, they’ve got great size, great outside shooting. They have great, great chemistry.
“I think the thing with Australia, the good thing, the blessing about [it], they’re not having the NBA players is they’ve been able to get this pool practicing for a long time. They’ve been practicing for a couple of months already.
“That’s really been a big blessing for their program. They’re very well coached. I know their coach [Andrej Lemanis] personally. They’ve got a great program together. We’re going to have a really, really tough time against Australia,” furthered Reyes.
Gilas and Australia are currently tied at the top of Group B with identical 2-0 slates. The Philippines defeated Japan on the road, 77-71, last November 24, before beating Chinese-Taipei at home, 90-83, three days later. Australia, on the other hand, romped Chinese-Taipei in the latter’s home floor, 104-66, before stifling Japan, 104-66, in Adelaide.
Though not wanting to concede, Reyes has accepted that Australia will be a tough team to shock, especially with the game happening in Melbourne. But Gilas will still go all-out, just as it has always done before.
“Against Australia? Very little advantage. I don’t think we’re going to have any kind of advantage,” expressed the eight-time PBA champion coach.
“Maybe a little bit of speed, but in all other categories, in all other departments, we’re going to be way over match.”
